Language, culture and linguistic change: honorific terms of address in Modern Hebrew

 

Yael Reshef

Dept. of Near Eastern Studies

The University of Michigan

 

Cross-cultural studies conducted in recent years indicated that Modern Hebrew is characterized by direct modes of expression as compared to other languages. This feature is attributed to cultural factors, reflecting the egalitarian ideology which was dominant among the founders of the speech community in the formative period preceding the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Based on an examination of terms of address used in written Modern Hebrew throughout that period, the current study shows that the preference for direct modes of expression developed in the emergent speech community only gradually. In the early layer of Modern Hebrew, honorofic terms of address were used on a regular basis in specific usage domains, as a reflection of linguistic habits transferred by speakers from their European substrate languages. This practice was gradually abandoned as the first generation of native speakers of Hebrew gained centrality in the social makeup of the young speech community towards the middle of the 20^th century.

The main findings of the study are based on an examination of unpublished archival material, documenting administrative correspondence in Hebrew from the first decades of the 20^th century, the period which witnessed the transformation of Hebrew from a liturgical and literary language into a modern national tongue. In addition, a large selection of published material, reflecting various registers of the period’s language, was also examined. The examination revealed that initially honorofic terms of address were consistently used in administrative correspondence. With time, their mandatory status gradually weakened, and by the 1950s they were already interchangeable with second person singular forms. In subsequent years they vanished from ordinary language usage, and in contemporary Modern Hebrew honorific terms of address have been retained in the legal system only, where they serve as a routine procedure in the interaction between judges and attorneys.

The usage domains of honorific terms of address in the early layer of Modern Hebrew present a complex picture. The phenomenon was regular and comprehensive in administrative correspondence only, while in other registers the use of honorific terms of address was partial and optional. Although the present study concentrates mainly on written registers of the language, evidence is provided for the phenomenon’s partial distribution in the period’s spoken language as well. Literary works as well as private letters reveal that beyond the bounds of administrative correspondence, the choice between the second person singular and honorific terms of address depended on variables such as the situational, the topic discussed, the relationship between the interactants, and their personal tastes and preferences. The data indicate that a general and regular realization of honorific terms of address was peculiar to administrative correspondence, and singled it out within the period’s linguistic system. The existence of regular distinctions based on register differentiation at such an early stage in the develepment of Modern Hebrew has not been recognized so far. The analysis of the factors which were active in creating such distinctions contributes to our understanding of the processes which shaped the development of Modern Hebrew